Services set for pilot of balloon

Monday, Jan. 28, 2002 | 9:42 a.m.

Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Thursday for Robert Bowers Jr., pilot of a hot air balloon who was killed when it crashed Saturday with six passengers onboard.

Bowers, 58, was dead at the scene of the early morning crash, caused by brisk winds that carried the balloon into a block wall in northwest Las Vegas.

All six passengers were taken to University Medical Center. Three were treated and released Saturday. The other three were kept overnight and released Sunday, a UMC spokeswoman said.

The group had taken the balloon ride as a birthday celebration for some of the passengers.

Bowers, owner of the Ultimate Balloon Adventure, was a Las Vegas resident for 21 years.

Born March 26, 1943, in Binghamton, N.Y., Bowers was a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam.

He was a member of the Southern Nevada Balloon Club.

Bowers is survived by his wife, Joan, of Las Vegas; daughters Annette Parker of Henderson and Michelle King of Park City, Utah; son Stephen Bowers of Las Vegas; father, Robert Bowers Sr., brother, Mark Bowers, and a sister, Roxy Bowers, all of Binghamton; and five grandchildren.

Memorial services will be at Palm Mortuary, 7400 W. Cheyenne Road. Burial will be private.

The family requests that donations be made to the American Cancer Society.

The last hot air balloon accident in the Las Vegas Valley occurred on Oct. 25, 2000, when an air burst over a detention basin near Jensen Street and Alexander Road, southwest of Lone Mountain Road, forced an Adventure Balloon Tours craft piloted by Hugh Ehrlich to crash into an area of desert scrub. No one suffered more than minor injuries.